Replacing internet master socket face plate

[EH75]

Wasn't sure whether to put this in here or in the networking section, if its in the wrong place then please feel free to move it.

Currently re decorating the living room and I am going to be replacing all light switches, sockets etc with brushed metal versions. I also wish to replace the telephone master socket and have purchased a new faceplate from screwfix for this purpose. I presumed it would just be a case of taking the old one off and wiring the new one up in the same way but the back of the new one is slightly different so I am not sure if I can actually use it or not? I've done a bit of googling but I'm not really any further forward apart from finding a lot of people saying you aren't supposed to change these as they belong to BT. I'm not particularly interested in that argument, its my house and I'd like it to look nice. The previous owner was a heavy smoker and so the current faceplate is stained yellow, not to mention the plaster and paint marks from the redecoration. If BT ever have to come out and do any work and complain about it I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. So anyways a few questions:

- Will the new socket I have actually work?
- Any advice on how I go about wiring it up? Most googling I have done refers to wiring up the BT sockets themselves rather than ones like my replacement.
- Is this likely to have any effect on my internet speed? If its going to adversely affect that then I probably wont bother and just look into getting a new white socket of the same design so although it wouldn't be the same as everything else, it would at least be passable compared to the current one. Actual telephone connection I don't care about, although we pay for a land line, we don't have a phone and probably never will, just use the mobiles.

Any advice would be much appreciated, pictures below.

 

[Caged]

Move it somewhere where you won't see it if the aesthetics are a problem (or put a new NTE5c on) - do not replace a BT NTE with a random master socket.

 

[Adam_151]

A Caged says above. The ne master socket you have ad no facility to connect extension sockets, so you'd have to use a lead like this... https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-slimline-telephone-extension-kit-25m/p/0342647

if its manky then replace with another BT NE5 socket

 

[EH75]

I have no need to connect any extension sockets. There are a couple in the house already but I will never use them. May have them removed when those rooms are decorated. Are there any other reasons for not doing this?

 

[luggles]

If you got an NTE5C or a MK3 with the vdsl faceplate you could lose the external filters you have currently plugged in. If you don't want to do that I believe you need B wire from the old into 2 in the new and A from old into 5 in the new, as per this:

Spoiler: Wiring Diagram

http://www.davefrydoes.co.uk/install-an-nte5a-bt-virgin-openreach-etc-master-socket/

 

[Avalon]

The line up to the master socket is the property of OpenReach, you (or whoever had it installed into the property) agreed to a contract agreeing that it belonged to them and not to touch it, same when you took out service, legally it’s a civil matter, but if you have a fault, attend and find the socket replaced with a non BT item, be prepared to discuss a chargeable faults call out for any related fault(s), last I knew that was £129.99. I’d strongly suggest buying the appropriate BT faceplate for your line type and doing it properly, if you’re struggling with a 2 wire set-up, then why not ask someone who’s more proficient/familiar to do it for you?

 

[EH75]

Ok ok I'll stick with the BT items but as mentioned above probably a good time to swap for a new one with inbuilt filters. Presume the below will be suitable:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NX2KC8Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-31BDbQ6N7CV6

The reason I'm giving it a go myself and not just paying someone to do it is that my original thinking was that surely can't be too hard to swap a few wires over on a socket? Always useful to learn new things. And if I screw it up then I'll have to call someone out and pay them anyway so I won't really have lost out in that respect.

 

[Swifty55]

Ok ok I'll stick with the BT items but as mentioned above probably a good time to swap for a new one with inbuilt filters. Presume the below will be suitable:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NX2KC8Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-31BDbQ6N7CV6

The reason I'm giving it a go myself and not just paying someone to do it is that my original thinking was that surely can't be too hard to swap a few wires over on a socket? Always useful to learn new things. And if I screw it up then I'll have to call someone out and pay them anyway so I won't really have lost out in that respect.

Take your time and you'll be fine. If you don't need the extensions, then I would just leave them disconnected. Just connect the main wire A&B.

 

[Caged]

The new style NTEs don't require any tools to terminate the wires either, they are a good choice.

 

[roboamigo]

There are a lot of rumors surrounding 'BTs' property and the like - the simple fact is, in 99.9% of cases, BT have no records of were your master socket is, so cant prove you have moved or damaged it as long as it is wired correctly, its only 2 wires inserted with a crone tool or, as per post above, self terminating blocks. Just take time and care moving it and leave yourself plenty of slack/spare cable if possible. From a speed perspective you want as short a run as possible before it gets filtered, and extensions ran from the correct terminals on the master socket. I dont see why you would need multiple sockets in this day in age though!

At our last house we had the master socket screwed to the doorframe, nowhere near a power socket. During the refurb I relocated it to the other side of the house by feeding new dropwire and connecting it with a BT junction box, and fitting a new, prefiltered faceplate, in a much better location. When our BB went live and BT came to activate the line, they said absolutely nothing, despite it being blatantly obvious it had recently been moved by a DIYer. He even commented on how tidy the install was compared to his previous visit. Your experience may vary!

You can by ADSL faceplates fairly cheap;

https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai...ahUKEwjHx7K2p7fkAhWEYcAKHQ_oCwcQwzwIOQ&adurl=

An alternative would be to to relocate your master socket somewhere hidden and run an extension using to somewhere more preferable, and plug in a filter to the new socket in the same style as your other sockets.

 

[EH75]

Ok so I've had a mess round with this this afternoon. As per everyones advice I purchased the BT master socket referred to the amazon link detailed above. I wired this up this afternoon wiring up only the A & B terminals purely because I have no need for the extension wiring and I have read some stuff that said wiring these in could sometimes have a slight adverse affect on the internet speed? I have no idea if there is any truth in this but thought I'd give it a go and see if there was any difference. There wasn't. I also tried wiring up the random master socket faceplate which I bought from screwfix by putting the B into 2 and the A into 5 as suggested above by luggles. This also worked and gave the same speed as both the BT sockets. So from that perspective I see no reason not to use this (it looks a lot nicer on the wall which is the whole reason I was attempting this). I have put the BT socket back on for now though as I'm not getting very good speeds compared to what I am paying for so I will be speaking to my ISP (plusnet) about this and if they do send someone round its probably best to have a BT socket on there. I will probably change it to the metal one in future though.

Cheers for all the advice!

 

[Swifty55]

Ok so I've had a mess round with this this afternoon. As per everyones advice I purchased the BT master socket referred to the amazon link detailed above. I wired this up this afternoon wiring up only the A & B terminals purely because I have no need for the extension wiring and I have read some stuff that said wiring these in could sometimes have a slight adverse affect on the internet speed? I have no idea if there is any truth in this but thought I'd give it a go and see if there was any difference. There wasn't. I also tried wiring up the random master socket faceplate which I bought from screwfix by putting the B into 2 and the A into 5 as suggested above by luggles. This also worked and gave the same speed as both the BT sockets. So from that perspective I see no reason not to use this (it looks a lot nicer on the wall which is the whole reason I was attempting this). I have put the BT socket back on for now though as I'm not getting very good speeds compared to what I am paying for so I will be speaking to my ISP (plusnet) about this and if they do send someone round its probably best to have a BT socket on there. I will probably change it to the metal one in future though.

Cheers for all the advice!

Yeah always make sure you have the BT socket for when OR ever comes round. You could essentially hide the BT master socket and wire up the other socket you bought as an extension.

When you say the speeds you're not getting. Has this always been the case or since you've been unplugging the router?

 

[EH75]

Nah its always been the case since we moved in a few months back but I've just not got round to doing anything with it because we've been renovating. Its not unusably slow, I am getting about 19mbps, the minimum line speed should be 30mbps. I'd obviously like to get what I am paying for though. It drops out every so often as well and the router (ASUS DSL-AC68U) says that my DLS is "unstable". Spoke to plusnet this evening on their live chat and they confirmed there is an issue with the line so they have raised a ticket for it. Shall see what happens...

 

[Avalon]

Nah its always been the case since we moved in a few months back but I've just not got round to doing anything with it because we've been renovating. Its not unusably slow, I am getting about 19mbps, the minimum line speed should be 30mbps. I'd obviously like to get what I am paying for though. It drops out every so often as well and the router (ASUS DSL-AC68U) says that my DLS is "unstable". Spoke to plusnet this evening on their live chat and they confirmed there is an issue with the line so they have raised a ticket for it. Shall see what happens...

Your router is known to have issues with FTTC lines, a very, very long thread exists on this very forum discussing said issue, i’d start by checking it’s running the latest firmware on the off chance that after years of ignoring/stringing people along, ASUS may have fixed it, but realistically replacing it with the ISP supplied router and letting DLM do it’s thing is probably your best move.

 

[EH75]

That's interesting I had no idea! I've been using it for about 3 years and not really had any issues other than this. It is running the latest firmware. The current internet speed doesn't really cause me any massive issues it's just a bit less than it is supposed to be. The main reason I got the router was for improved WiFi signal range and strength and on that front it performs well. Probably more inconvenient to swap back to the plusnet router and sacrifice the range than deal with the slightly lower speeds I am currently getting. I will dig it out of the loft and have a go to compare speeds though. The plusnet fault investigation page states (along with a multitude of other things I don't understand) "potential HR Joint or wet joint detected on GEA Service". Not sure what that means or if it would tally up with a router issue?

 

[bremen1874]

They think you may have a line fault. They'll presumably get it investigated and you may, or may not, end up with a faster connection.

It isn't router related.

 

[Avalon]

I believe HR is High Resistance in this case, either way at least you’re aware of the other potential equipment issue if you continue to have further issues after OR investigate.